KOffice RC1 has descended onto the well-known KDE ftp servers. Your best bet is to use it with KDE 2.2beta1 and Qt 2.3.1, but KDE 2.1.1 and Qt 2.2.4 will work (though not as well). The next release, scheduled for mid-August, will be 1.1 final, so this is your last chance to give KOffice a whirl and help find any remaining bugs before we are stuck with them until the 1.2 release <grin>. SuSE gets the binary-build over-achievement award. You can read the press release, complete with an incremental ChangeLog and other interesting stuff, if you Read More.

DATELINE JULY 30, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KOffice Suite Release Candidate Available for Linux/Unix

KDE, the Leading Linux Desktop, Ships First Release Candidate of KOffice Suite

July 30, 2001 (The INTERNET).
The KDE
Project today announced the release ofKOffice 1.1 Release Candidate 1 (RC1).
KOffice is an integrated office suite for KDE which utilizes open
standards for component communication and component embedding.
The primary goals of this release are to provide a preview of
KOffice 1.1 and to involve users and developers who wish to
request/implement missing features or identify problems.
Code development is currently focused on stabilizing KOffice 1.1,scheduled
for final release in mid-August, 2001.

Although a release candidate, KOffice 1.1RC1 constitutes the most stable and
feature-complete release of KOffice to date. The KOffice team encourages
all users of earlier KOffice releases to upgrade to KOffice 1.1RC1.
In particular, this release is substantially more stable and
feature-complete than KOffice 1.0, which was released together with KDE 2.0
in October 2000. Changes to individual KOffice components since the last
beta release are enumerated below. In additionRelease
Notes, alist of
changes since the KOffice 1.0 release, and aKOffice FAQ, are
available at the KOffice website.

The most significant improvements since KOffice 1.1beta3, the last
KOffice beta release which was announced last month, occurred in
KWord. These improvements
include: support for Asian languages withXIM;
drop'n'paste of images; and
copy/paste of tables. KWord also benefited from numerous bug-fixes,
particularly in the auto-sizing and auto-scrolling features.
For a further list of improvements to KOffice since the last beta release,
please refer to the incremental changelog below.

KOffice and all its components are available for free under
Open Source licenses from the KDEserver
and its mirrors.
As a result of the dedicated efforts of hundreds of translators,
KOffice 1.1RC1 is available in 27 languages.

Incremental Changelog

The following are the major improvements, enhancements and fixes since the
KOffice-1.1beta3 release last month:

All suite applications (KOffice libs)

New Features and Improvements:

added a submenu for selecting a type of embedded document to insert;

improved useability of template creation dialog;

improved template names to permit special characters, like '(';

improved the select-color actions with color palette;

improved the WMF-loader to parse the DPI of WMF files; and

replaced the filters' embedded dialog into the file chooser with normal dialogs; and

Recommended: The KOffice team recommends the use ofqt-x11-2.3.1 and kdelibs-2.2beta. Kdelibs-2.2beta (and the pending kdelibs-2.2RC1)
provide a few additional features, such as improved printing support
(kdeprint), a scanner plugin, and proper recognition of
.doc files in the file selector dialog.
KDE 2.2beta1 is available fromhttp://www.kde.org/unstable/2.2beta1/
and KDE 2.2RC1 should be available shortly fromhttp://www.kde.org/unstable/2.2rc1/.
Please note that the kdesupport package has been discontinued for KDE 2.2.x
due to the fact that most distributions already provide the libraries
and programs which were included in that package. If you still require
this package, you may use one of thesnapshots.

KOffice 1.1rc1 will not work with versions of Qt older than 2.2.4 or
versions of kdelibs older than 2.1.1.

Compiler Requirements.
Please note that some components of
KOffice 1.1RC1 (such as the Quattro Pro® import filter
and the new KChart) will not
compile with older versions of gcc/egcs,
such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2. At a minimum gcc-2.95-* is required.

Further Instructions.
For further instructions on compiling and installing KOffice, please consult
the installation
instructions.

Installing Binary Packages

Binary Packages.
Some distributors choose to provide binary packages of KOffice for certain
versions of their distribution. Some of these binary packages for
KOffice 1.1RC1 will be available for free download underhttp://ftp.kde.org/unstable/koffice-1.1-rc1/
or under the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp servermirrors. Please note that the
KDE team is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third
parties -- typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant
distribution (if you cannot find a binary package for your distribution,
please read the KDE Binary Package
Policy).

Library Requirements.
The library requirements for a particular binary package varies with the
system on which the package was compiled. Please bear in mind that
some binary packages may require a newer version of Qt and/or KDE
than was distributed with the distribution version for which the binary
package is listed below. For general library requirements for KOffice,
please see the text at Source Code -Library Requirements.

Package Locations.
At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

Please check the servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other
distributions. More binary packages may become available over the
coming days and weeks; in particular,RedHat packages are expected tomorrow andDebian packages are expected late
this or early next week.

About KOffice/KDE

KOffice is part of the KDE project.
KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers
worldwide to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environmentemploying a component-based, network-transparent architecture.
KDE is working proof of the power of the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software
development model to create first-rate technologies on par with
and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

For more information about KDE, please visit KDE'sweb site.
For more information about KOffice, please visit KOffice'sweb site where you can find,
among other things, information oncontributing to KOffice.

Quattro Pro is a registered trademark of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation
Limited.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Unix is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS.
All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are
the property of their respective owners.

Comments

I've read some discussions on the mailing lists, but when will RTF *import* be supported in KWord (I'm guessing after 1.1 now)? It's quite important for round-tripping - I can export RTF docs fine, but I can't import them again.

That's for after 1.1.
We have to stop the features at some point, and get the baby out. Otherwise people would still judge koffice from koffice-1.0, where KWord wasn't useable. At least koffice-1.1 is useable for many many common tasks. Those two features are necessary in the long run but not so much "essential" to get some basic work done.

Footnotes are definitely coming some time after 1.1.

Hyphenation is a very tricky problem due to the different rules in various languages, I have no idea how to tackle that one. Does abiword do hyphenation ? :)

I guess the best thing would be to somehow make use of the Latex hyphenation code, convert/implement it to kword somehow. Latex claims to have excellent hyphenation and it has very good support for many languages.

Don't know how hard that would be, but good hyphenation is hard to do, so why not build upon the works of others?

For every document the user should be able to set the language (which is saved within the document) it is written in. So there can be different "KOffice-Plugins" in this specific laguage for the hyphenation.

Since KOffice uses xml, one could use a tag like bla bla bla for defining a language for a paragraph, a sentence or even a single word!

First comes the observation that country codes do not equal languages. Some countries have several very different languages, some of which have the same name: America has dozens, perhaps hundreds of languages within its borders. I have a friend who used to correspond with her father in the language of the Seneca tribe. While KDE as a whole will probably never be translated to the vast majority of these languages, they *will* be word processed. I don't know of any language code, but it wouldn't surprise me if there is an ISO standard.

Second comes the question: is this an appropriate forum for such discussion? Maybe yes, maybe no. I know the developers read the dot, as several are regular posters. Maybe a vote is in order, just to gague people. (Personally, I like such discussion - I think many users of KDE are people like me, developers who have too heavy a work load to take on a KDE project, or sysadmins with programming experience).

This is the point.
Hyphenation (or at least the possibility to set a 'soft-hyphen') *is* an essential feature of word processing. Without hyphenation, kword (and abiword of course ;) are more editors then word processors. And for KWord soft-hyphenation is extremly important, because the text of the printed page never looks like the text in the kword window.
A KOffice final release without any kind of hyphenation will never be an alternative to commercial word processors. I don't know *one* word processing application for Windows or OS/2 without this feature.

Implement it yourself, ye old windbag. Where they currently are at 1.1 is not a bad position--remember when this project started, and how far it has come since 1.0. They cannot make a full-blown word processor capable of competing with Lotus or MS Word in a few months.

Vent your anger towards their ineptitude by implementing hyphens and sending them the patch. That is at least a little more productive than vainly blowing your creaky vocal bagpipes, exasperating that kword "will never be an alternative" to Windows-based word processors. Next I expect some foul, rotting lizard to crawl half-dead out of your gizzard to inform the world that "KDE will go bankrupt" due to "uncompetetive offerings." Spare us the pleasure.

What the heck is everyone going on about? I've used MS Works 4.0 for years and never bothered with hyphenation. For your average guy writing a letter or term paper, hyphenation is waaaay down on the list of desired features (in English anyway, is it different in other languages?). If you're writing a newspaper or something, well that's different. But KWord isn't ready for that anyway.

I hardly think hyphenation is more important than, say, footnotes or WYSIWYG printing. Fix those first!

BTW, MS Works 4.0 and all its predecessors (possibly some of its sequels too) belong on your list of Windows word processors without hyphenation.

> If you're writing a newspaper or something, well that's different. But KWord isn't ready for that anyway.

I feel that KWord wants to be both MS Word and MS Publisher, and it seems possible. I think a minority of Word users use hyphenation, but a majority of Publisher users use it. KWord will be a tool for writing "newspaper or something" as you say, so hyphenation is necessary and important.

> I hardly think hyphenation is more important than, say, footnotes or WYSIWYG printing. Fix those first!

You are right, there are priorities, everything can't be done at the beginning. I see there is a great work on Kword, things are going better and better and, continuing in this way, it is going to be a great tool !

I am less confident with some other KOffice apps. For example I don't see arrows coming in Kivio, I fear that Krayon will continue to stay as bad as today... Yesterday, I have tried a "drag and drop", and then a "copy-paste" from Konqueror to Krayon (beta3), both were impossible, these KDE applications don't work together... I wish that the KWord developpment (as the Konqueror one and some others) is an example to follow...

> Besides, DnD and C&P operations are both being majorly worked on in QT3, iirc

I am surprised, I thought it was one if the first things to do...

Worse : there are confusions between the copy/paste use and the use of Select + the mouse third button.

Examples :

- In KMail : I make Ctrl C on "Bla1", then I select "Bla2". I do Ctrl V and "Bla2" is appearing. Bad !!
- In KWord, idem : "Bla1" is appearing. Good.

- In Kmail : I make Ctrl C on "Bla1", then I select "Bla2". I do third button and "Bla2" is appearing. Good.
- In KWord, idem : "Bla1" is appearing. Bad !!

Such things are VERY VERY important to work quietly. It needs a global policy in all KDE for doing the same things when using Copy/Paste, Select/Third button, Drag&Drop and others reflex that all users need...

I think you misunderstand. What I mean by "It's being majorly worked on in QT3" is that it'll be in the first stable QT3, (at least, I'm pretty sure it'll be). KDE 3 will be exclusivly based on QT3, meaning you'll get a global policy at the QT/X level, including support for copying and pasting imagery, rich text, etc.

Also, about c&p operations and the third mouse button : those are seperate buffers, by design. The select & middle mouse operation is low-level X stuff, with only support for text.

Well, it's not really a bug, imho. The X clipboard, which is the middle mouse thing, is inherently text based, and has quite a few limitations (I believe there is an arbitrary size limit, could someone with more knowledge about XFree check?). The new clipboard in QT3 (as well as the current KDE clipboard) is, iirc, totally seperate from the X buffer.

I suppose though, that many people would like the features of the X clipboard (i.e. instant selection) while still keeping consistency and only one clipboard. Maybe KDE could interrupt the whole process, but I don't know much about it (again, could someone check?)

Actually, there was a debate quite a while ago about this on #kde, whether or not to have two clipboards or one.

> And are you sure that when you paste, the paste itself isn't selecting it and adding it to the x select buffer?

I think that pasting don't have to select text and fill the X buffer (as in Netscape, Gedit and usual non KDE programs...)

- In my first test (bad for Kmail), I copy first, then select then paste.
- In my second test (bad for KWord), I copy first, then select then middle button.

About Kmail, it seems there is only one buffer, but it would be two buffers without interactions. So I think it is a bug. But, as any KDE program has not the same behaviour...

Kword uses two not independant buffers. Now I try Konqueror, I see it is like KMail... For me all are bad, there would be two independant buffers for copy/paste and select/middle button (as in Netscape, Gnumeric, Gedit and many other programs).

So I think it is a bug at the level of whole KDE. I wish it would be updated with KDE 3, perhaps before, if it don't need Qt3...

Whoever said that the current KDE clipboard is supposed to be seperate from the X clipboard was wrong. That's a QT 2 thing and can't be changed; there's only one clipboard, and selecting some text overwrites whatever is in the clipboard. As soon as KDE 3 comes out this will be fixed, because it is already fixed in QT 3. There will be two clipboards: One that is replaced whenever you select something and is pasted with the middle mouse button, and another one that is only replaced when you do a Ctrl-C or 'Copy' and is only pasted when you do a Ctrl-V or 'Paste.' Two independent buffers, just like you want.

Just compiled under KDE 2.1.2 and RH7.1 and was wondering how many of the problems I see are due to it being compiled under 2.1.2. I knew I'd lose the decent printer support, but what about the following:

1. I can only start applications under koshell, selecting kword from the menu or typing kword in an xterm just exits (same for all other components). I had this problem with previous betas of Koffice 2.1 as well.

2. I can't import any thing, including an old kspread file from koffice 1.0. HTML, abiword, Excel, etc. imports all do nothing for me.

3. Inserting formulas or using kformula doesn't work properly. If I type a long line of text I can only see the bottom few points as if the window over the text is positioned too low.

I had the same problems when I was using koffice beta3 compiled from source on rh 7.1.
The solution I found now was to install the mandrake rpms for kde 2.1.2, they work exelent here on my redhat box....
Seems like once Redhat dosen't care about rpms anymore that I'll be forced to use mdk ones :)

I managed to fix it by installing bero's daily koffice build with --nodeps, it depends on CVS KDE 2.2, which I don't want to install until it's released (production system). I then went to my koffice build and did "make install", which copied over the RPM, so I could actually run the binaries without getting library failures.

staroffice is not open source, open office is, that is until staroffice 6 comes out, which would have a propeitry front end, because openoffice is lgpl. plus, code base is very different.
Also, heard of Klyx, Lyx version for KDE? Its a latex word prossecor.

What happened to Krayon, anyways?
Who started this KPlato thing that's mentioned loosely on the KOffice site, and when do they think it will become usuable and in KO? (Sounds very cool, by the way)
Were there absolutely no changes to Kugar and Kivio between beta3 and rc1?

"The purpose of the K PLAnning TOol (KPlato) project is to develop a Project Managment tool for Linux that will allow people to effectively plan and schedule projects in many different fields, including software development, manufacturing processes, and construction."

...find any remaining bugs before we are stuck with them until the 1.2 release

This does not sound like a successful road to a stable product. It seems KOffice will remain in constant development, where bugs are common and not fixed until new ones are created together with new features. I hope I got it wrong though.... What about fixing bugs until it is stable, and then start developing 1.2?

You're new to software development, aren't you? That's what beta testing *IS*... finding any bugs that the developers missed. The idea is that the actual release has no bugs, but that can only happen if all bugs are reported. This is just a friendly reminder that, if you find a bug, report it.

No I'm not. I have used Linux since 1996. And - I think Linux has a better development model with the stable and development versions. I guess you are the new one. Ever heard the phrase "it will be released when it is ready"?

>> No I'm not. I have used Linux since 1996. And - I think Linux has a better development model with the stable and development versions.

And I've been using Unix since 1979, and the guy I had lunch with a few hours ago was using punch cards in the 1960s. It doesn't matter. The only reason I mentioned it was because you're objecting to the statement (paraphrased): "We'd better find all the bugs before the release so we can fix them".

What is your alternative? Not search for bugs, or not fix them? Linux has the exact same development cycle - Add features (in major.odd), debug them, release a "stable" version (major.even), and then say "oops! we missed this bug" and release fix versions (major.even.revision). As someone who runs many SMP machines, I can tell you that the 2.4.x series is in no way bug free yet. Heck, on my home machine, I have to append="" a few paramaters to fix some bad assumptions made about power management.

Think of the b and rc series in KDE and KOffice as the dot odd versions of linux. If anything, KDE uses a versioning system that is much more in line with industry conventions - and it works the same (functionally) as linux releases.

I would like to thank Thomas Zander, Shaheed Haque, David Faure, Laurent Montel, Igor Janssen
Werner Trobin, John Califf, Andrea Rizzi, Ulrich Kuettler, Stephan Kulow for making Koffice, especially Kword a usable office alternative. I have been using it for my office suite, printing letters, envelopes, making budgets, preparing presentations, since 1.1beta. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I'm a brand new Linux user. I have been running Mandrake 7.2 and KDE as a trial for about three months (Actually bought some Mandrake disks last fall but didn't try it much until recently. I may also try SuSe and Debian soon too.). KDE is nice, and I find the KOffice suite plenty full featured and stable enough for my needs. And I work from home and use the computer extensively for my business.

I'm amazed that this great software is available and I can now make the switch without paying exhorbitant Microsoft upgrade fees. I have no problem paying for good software, but it's Microsoft's tactics and monopoly that have sent me to Linux. This "smart links" feature they are talking about with the browser in the XP system has made up my mind. I have a few more things to try tonight and then I suspect I am going cold turkey and eliminating NT from my system.

Thanks for a beautiful set of KOffice apps! Hopefully I can contribute in the future. If not programming, maybe with docs.